Sean Gustafson, Daniel Bierwirth and Patrick Baudisch
Sean Gustafson is a PhD student focusing on Human Computer Interaction (HCI) at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Germany.
Daniel Bierwirth is a cofounder of Matt Halting & Company UG and the Agentur Richard GbR and has a master's degree from Hasso Plattner Institute.
Patrick Baudisch is a professor at Hasso Plattner Institute and is the head of the HCI Lab.
This paper was presented at the UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.
Summary
This paper discusses the researchers' attempts to remove the need for visual feedback when a person is communicating a simple idea that can be shown by a simple drawing or performing an action with a series of movements.The main goal of this experiment was to evaluate the plausibility of creating a system that relies on a user's short term memory instead of providing any feedback that the user can respond to. The hypothesis for this experiment is that a person's memory can replace the need for a system to provide the user with any display or results and still support many basic interactions.
The first experiment focused on testing a user's ability to draw on a 2D imaginary plane and recall what was drawn earlier to create more complex shapes and add to what is present. The test consisted of 3 tasks.First was graffiti drawings checking for correct shapes and letters, next was repeated drawings that measured the differences in the same shape if drawn over each other right away, and last was multi-stroke drawing which combined shapes together making them more complex. The results of these tests supported the hypothesis that a user's memory can serve as enough feedback to create legible shapes because all of the users correctly performed the tasks with the multi-stroke drawings contributing the greatest amount of error while still being acceptable.
The second experiment focused more on testing a user's memory by requiring them to draw a shape, rotate, and point to a specified vertex on the shape they had drawn. The results found that when a user rotated there was a statistically significant increase in error when compared to the user standing still the entire time. The researchers also performed a follow up test that required a user to leave their left hand in front of their face in the form of an L. This resulted in significantly less error due to the use of the left hand as a reference point for later interactions
The final experiment tested a user's ability to work in a plane that they had no prior contact with. This consisted of using a user's left hand as the base for a grid using the intersection of the L as location (0,0), the tip of the index finger as location (1,0), and the tip of the thumb as position (0,1). Participants were then asked to point to various random points on the grid using their left hand as a reference. The results showed, as predicted, that the points furthest away from the left hand provided the most difficulty although some users exhibited better results than others leading the researchers to conclude that this task could be improved through training.
The results of the experiments helped to provide the researchers with more data to consider when continuing development such as support for a reference hand which would greatly reduce error. The researchers conclude the paper by discussing the plausibility of creating an Imaginary Interfaces supported device and provide a few examples of applications for the new technology such as communicating simple sketched quickly without system feedback to the user.
Discussion
Microsoft Kinect
I think the researchers achieved their goal of proving a screen, or any form of feedback for that matter, is not necessary for interaction with computers. They clearly showed that people are capable of remembering important information when interacting with something that is not present in the physical.
The closest example of this technology in the market today is Microsoft's Kinect peripheral for their XBOX gaming console. In many cases, although reactions occur on screen, users are still interacting with an interface that is completely imaginary like simulating a steering wheel even while only viewing the affected car externally.
The research presented in this paper introduces the concept of removing the interaction, as we know it, with computers and in its place allow the human's mind to take on new responsibilities. I think this concept is an interesting one that could lead to many applications that only need user input and can be performed very quickly with no obvious computer interaction. For example a button that a person presses everyday and receives no feedback from could be replaced with this technology like a garage door opener or any other unlocking mechanism for that matter that does not tell the user anything about what is occurring-it can only be evaluated by observing that the action has occurred which, in this case, serves as enough feedback given the input (button press).
A fault of this research lies only in its uniqueness as I do not think a need for this technology is satisfactorily established and it may take more experimental research before an endgame can be determined.
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